ATVs or all terrain vehicles are very useful in getting to remote and rough terrain locations that are frequently hunted and cannot be accessed by a pick-up truck. The ATVs are particularly important because they can be equipped with a lift or hoist that can be used to skin and dress captured game right on sight or to carry and lift cargo or heavy equipment. These lifts and hoists are particularly useful when hanging and dressing game, since the hunter using the ATV does not have to drag the captured game on the ground, which expends a lot of energy and prevents contamination or damage of the captured game.
It is known to equip ATVs and pick-up trucks with lifting devices that can hoist a captured game upwards and allow a hunter to hoist the captured game and skin and dress it right at the point of kill. By skinning and dressing the captured game early after the captured game has been killed, the hunter can better prepare the meat from the captured game. These lifting devices can be collapsible for easy storage and will often include a winch and a gambrel. Other features include supporting brackets to the ground or fender of a vehicle and a spindle to turn or spin the captured game into different positions in relation to the transporting vehicle.
There are also such lifting devices designed specifically for ATVs. The ATVs and lifting devices are many times preferred by hunters over pick-up trucks because of their mobility and are known to have accessory features such as a spindle to rotate any hanging captured game, a winch and gambrel and a lifting device that has a telescoping boom. Although the lifting devices for ATVs are novel and useful, they could be improved.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to improve the devices used to hoist an animal onto an ATV.
More specifically, it is often difficult, cumbersome, or even impossible to lift a heavy carcass, then jockey it onto a vehicle. These problems are exacerbated if the vehicle has limited cargo space, such as is the case with an ATV, or if the vehicle must be parked in a location that makes it difficult to move the carcass from the ground to the vehicle. All of these problems are especially aggravated if the hunter is not strong enough to deftly handle the carcass. This might be the situation if the hunter is disabled, or weakened for any reason.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a unit that can be used in conjunction with an ATV to efficiently lift and move an animal from the ground onto the vehicle.